Assessment Research Grants

The 2024 Call for Proposals has now concluded, and the winners have been selected!
The next Call for Proposals will be announced in 2025. If you have any questions and would like to contact the team, please email ARAG@britishcouncil.org.

The purpose of the Assessment Research Grants is to contribute to innovation in assessment theory and practice through the validation of Aptis and other British Council language assessments. We invite proposals for original research investigating key areas of interest for 2024 as detailed below.

British Council language assessment research is based on the Socio-Cognitive Model of Language Testing Development and Validation, most recently described in Chalhoub-Deville and O’Sullivan, 2020). Proposals utilising this theoretical model will be prioritised. The use of alternative validation models and frameworks that contribute evidence of the validity of British Council assessments will also be considered.

Projects which are more exploratory in nature and utilise instruments other than Aptis will be considered provided the proposal demonstrates strong potential for impact in the field of language assessment.

Projects will generally be 12-18 months in duration but, in exceptional circumstances, projects lasting up to 24 months will also be considered.

Who can apply?

The Principal Investigator (PI) must be associated with an educational institution or recognised research organisation, similar in standing to the institutions recognised by UKRI.
Collaborative proposals involving interdisciplinary teams are encouraged, and PIs representing diverse contexts and backgrounds are welcome.
In order to foster our relationship with partners, we will also encourage applications from test users interested in understanding how British Council tests impact on their institution.
Please note that regardless of the geographical location of applicants and regardless of where the actual research will take place, all contracts for research projects issued by the British Council are subject to the laws of England and Wales; this is non-negotiable.
Contracts will be with the Administering Institution, which will be the institution at which the PI is based.

Financial support

Financial support for individual projects will be limited to a maximum of £25,000. Please note that projects will be evaluated based on value-for-money in the given context.

Applications for extensive travel or large items of equipment will not be supported.
Applications should not at this stage include requests for funding for conference presentations; if completion of the research project results in acceptance of a paper at an international conference, the British Council will consider supporting the attendance of one of the authors through a separate application.

Key deliverables

Interim report (timeline to be agreed) to be sent out for external review
Technical report to be published online by British Council (alternative publication of the research in peer-reviewed journals will also be considered).
Sharing a record of presentations, publications and other dissemination of the project with the British Council for inclusion in our impact and reporting.
Availability to present on the research topic at conferences and online (such opportunities will be agreed in advance on a case-by-case basis).

Please find the key areas of interest for 2024 below

The following two areas are of particular interest to the British Council in 2024. Technology is not identified as a separate area of interest as we believe that technology permeates these areas of interest and can be a key component or focus of either of these areas if relevant.

1. Assessing young learners

Young Learners covers a diverse range of age groups. In the context of British Council assessments, we have Aptis for Teens aimed at students in lower secondary as well as the British Council Primary Test aimed at students at the upper end of primary school. Projects focusing on these assessments are encouraged. However, this area of interest can also include assessment and feedback approaches for students in primary school age groups more broadly. As YL assessment is still a dynamic and emerging field, proposals contributing to a better understanding of the issues, theoretical basis, and opportunities for integrating assessment into teaching and learning more broadly for Young Learners are also welcome.

YL characteristics and considerations

Student instructions: what’s the best way to communicate task instructions to YLs? E.g. brief or detailed written / aural / visual instructions?
Young learners and onset age of learning & testing
Appropriate test duration for tests of young leaners of different ages
Use of visuals and animation to replicate authenticity in young learner assessment
Use of machine learning for automated scoring: how does scoring compare to pen and paper tests at the same level?

YLs and Context of Use

Multilingualism (i.e. impact of learning another language at the same time as learning basic skills in L1)
Considerations around multilingual assessment for young learners
Assessment and alignment with the school curriculum

2. Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) in language assessment

Proposals in this category should focus on the intersection of English language assessment and EDI principles in educational contexts. Ideally, assessment tools and processes should be designed and administered in a way that is fair and unbiased, considering the diverse backgrounds and characteristics of test-takers. Addressing EDI in English language assessment contributes to the reliability and validity of the assessments, ensuring that they measure language proficiency accurately and fairly for a broad range of test-takers.

Topics of interest under this theme include but are not limited to:

Validation of assessment tools that promote an inclusive learning environment

Exploration of construct validity in modified assessments
The use of assistive technology
Innovation in universal design approaches to assessment
Accessibility measures for classroom and alternative assessment

Accommodations

Investigations into the use of extra time across a range of candidate needs
Effectiveness of specific accommodations on candidate performance
Remote proctoring for candidates with specific needs
Online delivery of special accommodations
Test-taker perspectives on tests with accommodations

Assessment and fairness

Differential item functioning for images/item content representing different social groups
Innovative methods for detection of bias in assessments
Mitigating bias in the way that scoring engines are developed
Mitigating bias in AI generated test content
Investigating socio-e economic factors that may impact test performance such as age, exposure to technology, socio-economic background etc.

Key dates for the Assessment Research Grants 2024

February-March 2024	Call for proposals
31 March 2024	Applications close
April 2024	Preliminary review of applications
May 2024	Evaluation and selection
30 June 2024	Notification of decisions to applicants
July-August 2024	Drawing up and signing of contracts
1 September 2024	Project start*

*We are assuming and working towards a project start date of 1 September, however this will be subject to the completion of administrative processes, including the signing of a Research Services contract.

Previous recipients of an Assessment Research Grant

2024

Okim Kang (Northern Arizona University) - The Impacts of Background and Socio-Economic Factors on Young Learners’ Test Performance

2023

Gladys Plens de Quevedo Pereira de Camargo and Juliana Reichert Assunção Tonelli (Foundation for Development Support at UEL) - Language assessment Accessibility Resource Centre - LaARC
David Allen (Ochanomizu University) - Investigating the washback potential of the BCT-S
Nicola Latimer and Sathena Chan (University of Bedfordshire) - Aptis writing in real-life conditions: the impact of allowing access to spelling and grammar checking
Janine Knight and Joana Puig (International University of Catalonia) - Creating a school-child-family evaluation rubric for evaluating children’s plurilingual and intercultural competence in a Catalan Primary school

2022

Tineke Brunfaut and Judit Kormos (University of Lancaster) - Multimodal integrated skills assessment: Investigating the construct of viewing-to-write tasks
Okim Kang (Northern Arizona University) - Equality, diversity, and inclusion: different varieties of accents in Aptis English listening tests

2021

Andrew Bax, Manoranjan Sathyamurthy, Sathena Chan, Chihiro Inoue, John Oyekan (Weblingua LTD, University of Bedfordshire, University of Sheffield) - Towards building an automated scoring model for assessing appropriate use of metadiscourse markers in Aptis Writing across CEFR levels: A multidisciplinary study
Salomé Villa Larenas and Daniel Muñoz (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Universidad de Chile) - Exploring the impact of Aptis on Chilean EFL teacher education: views from programme decision makers
Sathena Chan and Nahal Khabbazbashi (University of Bedfordshire) - Towards new task types in the digital age: perspectives from different educational contexts
Prithvi N. Shrestha, Maria Leedham and Tanzeela Anbreen (The Open Univeristy) - Examining transitivity, mood, theme, lexical diversity, metadiscourse markers and keywords in Aptis test-takers’ spoken performance across CEFR levels

2019

Shangchao Min and Hongwen Cai (Zhejiang University and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), Exploring the cognitive demands of Aptis listening tasks using cognitive diagnostic assessment.
Vahid Aryadoust, Guoxing Yu, Nathaniel Owen, Mikako Nishikawa (National Institute of Education Singapore, University of Bristol, Open University, Kyoto University), An Eye-Tracking Investigation of the Relationships between Test Takers’ Attention, Item Difficulty, and Item Type in the Aptis Grammar and Vocabulary Test.
Janina Iwaniec, Ana Halbach, Lyndsay Renee Buckingham Reynolds, Miguel Fernández Álvarez (University of Bath), The effect of bilingual schooling in Madrid on SES: The student perspective.
Soo Jung Youn (Northern Arizona University), The role of pragmatic variables in predicting the Aptis speaking test difficulty.

2018

Sathena Chan, Daniel Lam and Tony Green (CRELLA, University of Bedfordshire) for their project which will Investigate the textual features and revising processes of EFL and L1 English writers in China in Aptis for Teens Writing Task 4.
Nivja de Jong and Jos Pacilly (Leiden University Centre of Linguistics, Leiden University, Holland) for their project which will look at new techniques to measure fluency in speech automatically.
Ute Knoch, Catherine Elder, Jason Fan and Tina Peixin Zhang (University of Melbourne, Australia) for their project to investigate the discourse produced at score levels B2.2 to C2 on the Aptis Advanced Writing Test.
Judit Kormos (Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University) for her project which will explore time-extension and the second language reading performance of children with different first language literacy profiles.

2017

Trisevgeni Liontou (University of Athens) for her study which will apply automated analyses techniques to investigate discourse features in the Aptis for Teens Writing test: Evidence from lower secondary EFL students.
Nathaniel Owen (Open University) for Exploring rater behaviour with test-taker responses in Aptis Writing.

Okim Kang (Northern Arizona University) for her study on linguistic features and automatic scoring of Aptis speaking performances.

Carol Spöttl, Eva Konrad, Franz Holzknecht & Matthias Zehentner (Language Testing Research Group, University of Innsbruck) for their project on assessing writing at lower levels: research findings, task development locally and internationally, and the opportunities presented by the extended CEFR descriptors.

Azlin Zaiti Zainal , Ng Lee Luan & Tony Green (Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya)for their study which looks into the impact of the ProELT 1 training programme and Aptis on Malaysian English teachers’ classroom practice.

2016

Stephen Bax & Prithvi Shrestha (Open University,UK) for their project which will explore lexical thresholds and lexical profiles across the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR) levels assessed in the Aptis test.
Sally O'Hagan & Kellie Frost (University of Melbourne) for their project which will examine test taker processes and strategies and stakeholder perceptions of relevance of the Aptis for Teachers speaking test in the Australian context.
Parvaneh Tavakoli & Fumiyo Nakatsuhara (University of Reading) for their project which looks at the scoring validity of the Aptis Speaking test: Investigating fluency across tasks and levels of proficiency.
Xun Yan, Ha Ram Kim & Ji Young Kim (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) for their project which explores the complexity, accuracy and fluency features of speaking preformances on Aptis across different CEFR levels.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh & Ardi Marwan (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) for their project which seeks to analyse test-takers' pragmatic performance and cognitive processing in the Aptis General Writing Test, Task 4.

2015

Yo In’nami and Rie Koizumi (Chuo University, Japan). Factor structure and four-skill profiles of the Aptis test
Jesús García Laborda, Marian Amengual Pizarro, Mary Frances Litzler, Soraya García-Esteban and Nuria Otero de Juan (University of Alcalá, Spain). Student perceptions of the CEFR levels and the impact of guided practice on APTIS oral test performance.
Carol Spöttl, Franz Holzknecht, Kathrin Eberharter, Benjamin Kremmel and Eva Konrad (University of Innsbruck, Austria). Looking into listening: Using eye-tracking to establish the cognitive validity of the Aptis Listening Test.

2014

Khaled Barkaoui (York University, Canada). Roles of delivery mode and computer ability in performance on Aptis writing tasks.
Noriko Iwashita, Lyn May and Paul Moore (The University of Queensland, Australia). Features of discourse and lexical richness at different performance levels in the APTIS speaking test.
Andrea Phillott and Rosalind Warfield Brown (Asian University for Women, Bangladesh). The influence of sociocultural context on tertiary students’ understanding and performance on Aptis written tests.
Susan Sheehan, Peter Sanderson and Ann Harris (University of Huddersfield, UK). Identifying key criteria of written and spoken English at C1.

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